Martha Stewart's New Old House: Restoration, Renovation, Decoration, Landscaping

by Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart guides homeowners step-by-step through every phase of the biggest, costliest, most demanding project many people will ever undertake--the renovation of an entire house. This is a virtual encyclopedia of essential information delivered with Martha Stewart's personal flair. Full-color photographs.

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, How To, Interior Design

288 pages, Hardcover

First published November 3, 1992

About the author

Martha Helen Stewart is an American retail businesswoman, writer, and television personality. As the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, focusing on home and hospitality, she gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, merchandising and e-commerce. She has written numerous bestselling books, was the publisher of Martha Stewart Living magazine and hosted two syndicated television programs: Martha Stewart Living, which ran from 1993 to 2004, and The Martha Stewart Show, which ran from 2005 to 2012.
In 2004, Stewart was convicted of felony charges related to the ImClone stock trading case; she served five months in federal prison for fraud and was released in March 2005. There was speculation that the incident would effectively end her media empire, but in 2005 Stewart began a comeback campaign and her company returned to profitability in 2006. Stewart rejoined the board of directors of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia in 2011 and became chairwoman of her namesake company again in 2012. The company was acquired by Sequential Brands in 2015. Sequential Brands Group agreed in April 2019 to sell Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, including the Emeril brand, to Marquee Brands for $175 million with benchmarked additional payments.

Reviews

[Samantha Dury · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goes into great detail for if one ever finds they are restoring an old colonial in Connecticut.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. It follows Martha as she purchases and totally renovates an old house in Connecticut, giving very detailed descriptions of what she and her band of workers did. It is a little dated....maybe 15 years old, and I definately have different decorating tastes (the kitchen is way too dark for my taste, she uses a lot of copper and browns and mustards), but I found the way she describes the process was well done. She starts with finding the house and property, and carries it through to choosing window treatments and gravel for the driveway. I have always thought of Martha as a bit OCD and if you read between the lines this book supports that. :) But maybe I am a little too! Afterall, I read it cover to cover and savored it....and even read the writings on the inside covers! In another life I am going to give up veterinary medicine and be an architect.

[Linda Hartlaub · Rating 2 out of 5]

I suppose this book is good if you live in New England and have a really old house (as in built in the 1700s or 1800s) to renovate. Martha is really young in this book and gives an aura of she knows everything. You can, however, laugh at hairstyles, clothing, and what passed for "ripped" when the book was published - oh, those paunchy stomachs on the young men. The writing, itself, is tedious unless you are actually working with the house. And, good grief, the painted floors! Obviously, you don't want to have dogs running through this house.

[Kristin Wickham · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like to read random nonfiction books to learn different skills and I stumbled across this old book and decided to read it. It was so hard to read I could only read a page at a time sometimes. Don’t read unless you have no access to the internet and are planning on gutting a house.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

"When you are planning a border fence, be sure to alert your neighbors to your intentions before you begin construction. The appearance of an unexpected fence often provokes strong reactions." and other helpful tips like this one from Martha.

[Janelle F · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does a great job of explaining a very thorough renovation. Apparently, Martha's Turkey Hill house had just about everything wrong with it and they had to do work on everything from the foundation to the roof. In fact, the whole back of the house was falling off.

This is a great book for people thinking of buying a historic house. It goes through the joys and troubles that come with history. It had little photographs of things they found in the walls, etc.

I really liked the detailed, separate timelines of the renovation and remodel. This is a great technical book. Clear, well-written, and not scary.

As for the decorating, it is quite dated. Lots of "stenciling", earth tones, and muddy-colored woodwork. There are a few classic things that would work today, but I wouldn't flip through this book for decorating ideas.

The first two sections are the best. Definitely would recommend if, like us, you are in negotiations on a historic house.

[O Babs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tasteful but dated. Re-read this recently and felt I had stepped into a time warp. Imbued with the atmosphere and values of the day (published in 1992, probably on work begun in the 1980s). Though there is a little interesting information about issues and trades involved in restoring and refurbishing an old house, financing the project as a designer showhouse puts it way beyond what most people would be able to emulate. The decorators involved were lavish in the aesthetics of the day, including generous amounts of stencilling, faux painting and chintz. Pretty but dated. The result is so far removed from the budget and expectations of the 99% that the book now reads as practically irrelevant and a visual emblem of what was about to get even worse in American culture.

[Meadow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Say what you will about Martha, but she does great work. I can only hope our remodel turns out half as well.

[Cari Skuse · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books. I refer to this quite often. I also renovated my house and Martha's story helped to show what I would be facing.

[Kari Preuss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like diary entries and photos of the village it took to complete however not a "how to" book.